James Butlin | On 04, Dec 2013

Director: Dennis Dugan
Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock
Certificate: 12A
Watch Grown Ups 2 online in the UK: Netflix UK / TalkTalk TV / Apple TV (iTunes) / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / Google Play

Adam Sandler and the gang return for the least anticipated sequel in recent memory, but was the critical battering Grown Ups 2 received upon its theatrical release justified? In a nutshell: yes.

It’s difficult to really deliver key reasons as to why the film is so bad because it manages to tick so many boxes. There’s no real way of summarising a plot, because there isn’t one. The characters try and deliver some morality tale about being bullied as kids, but then the jokes throughout the film essentially stem from them bullying other people.

The women are all there to either serve the male characters as sexual objects or simply as mothers of their children; it only takes 10 minutes for Adam Sandler’s Lenny to start high-fiving the postman because he passed comment on Roxanne’s (Salma Hayek) breasts. And this is shortly after Lenny has been urinated on by a moose in his house.

The film stars a group of actors who all seem to be good friends. The first Grown Ups managed, at least, to show that the ensemble had chemistry. Sandler has since commented on the critical response to Grown Ups 2, stating that he had fun making it because he was with his friends – but he seems to forget that people are meant to pay money to see this. If anyone else made a garbage effort at their job, they’d get fired. It’s a shame that didn’t happen to Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade or Chris Rock.

One would hope that you can find it in your heart to not bother with Grown Ups 2 – and that no one then gets the idea in their head to make a further sequel. Some of the people in this franchise have talent. They should use it.

Grown Ups 2 is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription.

 

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